Briefs

A traffic jam that extended at least eight miles on Interstate 65 in Alabama, forcing hundreds of motorists to camp out in vehicles overnight after a rare Southern snowfall, finally cleared Friday as rising temperatures melted remnants of the freeze.

Some questioned whether road officials were caught flat-footed by a winter storm that had been predicted for days, but the state highway department denied being unprepared.

Hundreds of people spent a cold night trapped on I-65 about 50 miles north of Birmingham after a winter storm dumped snow around the Southeast and caused at least one death in Mississippi.

As much as 4 inches fell in Alabama on Tuesday, quickly coating roads in northern counties, particularly higher elevations

In Virginia, the areas hardest hit Thursday and Friday were in the southwest, where the National Weather Service says 13 inches were reported in Giles County.

NEW YORK

Paper removes gun permit data

A suburban New York newspaper that outraged gun owners by posting the names and addresses of residents with handgun permits removed the information from its website Friday.

The Journal News in White Plains took down the data just three days after the state enacted a gun control law that included privacy provisions for permit holders.

The provisions were a reaction to interactive maps the newspaper published on LoHud.com that pinpointed thousands of permit holders in Westchester and Rockland counties.

Gun rights activists had immediately complained that permit owners' privacy was being violated. They said the map could guide burglars to their homes, and police groups claimed the map could lead ex-convicts to the officers who had put them away.

ILLINOIS

Lottery winner autopsy done

Authorities on Friday exhumed the body a Chicago man who was poisoned with cyanide after winning the lottery and conducted an autopsy in the hopes that it will help solve the mystery surrounding his death.

The body of Urooj Khan was exhumed from a cemetery Friday morning and placed inside a black hearse, which was escorted by four police cars to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

Pathologists collected samples of hair, nails and most major body organs, as well as contents of the stomach, Medical Examiner Stephen Cina said. Tests might determine whether Khan swallowed, inhaled or was injected with the poison, Cina said.

Khan, 46, died in July as he was about to collect $425,000 in lottery winnings. His death initially was ruled a result of natural causes. But a relative whose identity remains a mystery asked for further tests that revealed he had been poisoned.

MICHIGAN

Body stolen; son is charged

A man accused of stealing his father's body from a Detroit cemetery with the hope of bringing him back to life was charged Friday and ordered held on a $75,000 bond.

Vincent Bright, 48, who police say was keeping his father's body in the basement freezer of his home in hopes of having it miraculously resurrected, was charged with disinterment of a body.

The crime is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

WASHINGTON

Four bald eagles shot to death

Four bald eagles were found shot to death in a Granite Falls lake last week, and Washington Fish and Wildlife has posted a reward for information leading to the conviction of their killer.

Just as puzzling as the identity of the killer is the question of motive.

Investigators say eagle parts can fetch hundreds of dollars on the black market. They're used in everything from high-end artwork to Wiccan ceremonies to Native American powwows.

The black market can be so lucrative, investigators say, that the birds are sometimes referred to as “flying $1,000 bills.”

But in this case, the carcasses were left floating in a lake.

Under state and federal law, it is illegal to kill an eagle or possess any of their parts — even just a feather — without a permit. Under state law, it is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail, plus $2,000 to $3,000 in fines.